Best Practices for Social Sustainable Development in Emerging-Market

Abstract

The idea of social sustainable development is linked to the notion of global economic growth. Our Common Future collects a progressive view of economic development, entailing social justice, income distribution, full employment, safe and healthy working environment, environmental protection, among other issues. The need to prioritize social sustainability has never been more urgent than it is today. This is particularly true in emerging markets, which are entering a period of mass urbanization that could dramatically raise productivity and standards of living, but that also poses environmental and other threats that could significantly reduce the benefits of growth. Many emerging markets have achieved economic growth by adopting sustainable resources consumption but there is a lack of a widely accepted framework for evaluating the success of these emerging markets. The authors have evolved a framework known as, Social Sustainability Development Index (SSDI), to help the stakeholders in emerging markets to identify the sustainability approaches that can be adopted in their markets. The SSDI is designed to measure the performance of markets in five social sustainability categories namely how well they are meeting their citizens basic needs, resource efficiency, environmental cleanliness, built environment, and commitment to future sustainability. The philosophies identified in this study are generally valid across all emerging markets and can be adopted by everyone.

Keywords: social sustainable development, social sustainability development index, emerging markets.